Belle Plaine, Iowa

January 4, 2023

The Belle Plaine City Council met on January 3, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers with Mayor Dave Fish presiding. Present: Judy Schlesselman, Garrett Landuyt, Mary Pech, Mitch Malcolm, and Lyle Morrow. Also present: City Administrator Stephen Beck, and City Clerk Sandy Walton. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Motion by Schlesselman, seconded by Landuyt to approve the Consent Agenda, Council Minutes of December 21, 2022, and bills received. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Resident Comments: None.

Lance Hinschberger, Parks & Recreation Director, gave his Annual Report. The pool was hit hard this year with repair and water related expenses prior to opening and ended the pool season with a $56,878.34 operational loss. The new approach with Concessions worked much better this year, with that area seeing a profit of $4,183.88. Overall recreation program participation was good again this past season and, in some cases, improved! The mayor and council noted that Mr. Hinschberger does an excellent job!

Chief Hudson handed out 2022 reports for Dispatch Activity By Type, an Arrest Summary, Calls for Service By Day and Calls for Service By Hour. The Council found this information very interesting and informative. He also reported that Officer Batcheller will not be attending ILEA until this Spring.

Public Works employee, Jay Hamilton, presented a proposal to purchase a mini excavator. This piece of equipment would enable the city workers to complete more of our own work such as main break repair and building demolition. Motion by Landuyt, seconded by Malcolm to approve the purchase of a mini excavator from Mid Country Machinery with the trade-in of the Bobcat only (which is not used much). On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried. Net purchase price estimate is $58,000.

The building inspection report on 1306 6^th Avenue was discussed with our Building Inspector Mike Tomash participating via phone. He reported on a recent conversation with Rusty Wright regarding the need for sister joists to shore up the support beam. Per Tomash, Wright agreed to make this correction and would forward pictures to the City Administrator upon completion. This is acceptable to the Council, and they instructed City Administrator Beck to send a letter summarizing this as a follow-up.

Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Morrow to approve the renewal of Class C Liquor Sales, Class C Liquor License with Sunday Sales & Outdoor Service for the Jennings Bradshaw American Legion Post #39 at 1008 12^th Street, Belle Plaine, Iowa. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Schlesselman to approve approval of a Class C Liquor License with Sunday Sales & Outdoor Service at El Catrin Mexican Cuisine located at 1009 7^th Avenue, Belle Plaine, Iowa. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Landuyt, seconded by Morrow to approve a one-time utility credit of $189.44 at 1614 8^th Avenue, Belle Plaine, Iowa created by a toilet that stuck open for an undetermined amount of time. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Morrow, seconded by Malcolm to approve a one-time utility credit of $390.72 at 510 13^th Street, Belle Plaine, Iowa for a broken kitchen sink pipe. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Schlesselman, seconded by Pech to approve Resolution #23-01-01, a resolution approving the transfer of funds from TIF to Debt Service. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Schlesselman, seconded by Pech to approve the reappointment of Lee Weeda to the Airport commission. His term will expire in January 2026. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Morrow, seconded by Pech to approve the reappointment of Mitch Malcolm to the Historical Preservation Commission. His term will expire in January 2026. On roll call vote, Schlesselman, Landuyt, Pech, and Morrow voted aye, Malcolm abstained, motion carried.

Motion by Morrow, seconded by Pech to approve the appointment of Jacki McDermott to the Historical Preservation Commission to replace exiting member Donna Greenlee. Jacki’s term will expire in January 2025. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Motion by Pech, seconded by Malcolm to approve The Hometown Current as the official newspaper of the City of Belle Plaine for 2023. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried. (The Current’s due dates are much more acceptable for the clerks than any other newspaper.)

Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Landuyt to approve a one-time, use-it or lose-it comp-time offer for public works employees who lost out on holiday time off due to this year’s snowstorm. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried.

Steve reported on a water main break that occurred last Friday. He extended his thanks to the public works guys for doing a fantastic job. The significant leak was discovered near midday and the crew finished the repair by about 8:00 p.m. that night. Completing all the work ourselves saved money considering this was a holiday weekend.

The Water/Wastewater Operators have started to read meters today.

Northway has been here this week as we are having trouble with Well 3 and they are also continuing to decommission Well 5.

Steve has provided a rough draft to Chris at Homeland Security of our 2^nd appeal to FEMA for the welcome sign. He has also provided a rough draft to Leon Freeman, Disaster Recovery Specialist with Veenstra & Kimm, of our Arbitration request for roads & bridges. Areas involved are 21^st Street, the bridge approaches near Severson’s and Hole 2 of the Country Club as well as the 10^th Avenue culvert near the old bus barn. Steve had a recent conference call with these gentlemen trying to find a pathway for relief on these projects. Both requests will be submitted to FEMA this week.

The Mayor asked Steve for an update on obtaining funding for generators for the fire station, city hall, and the well field. Steve continues to work with Steve Oberbroeckling of Homeland Security on these projects.

Mayor Fish reappointed Mary Pech as the Mayor Pro-Tem. We had a brief discussion on the possible change of utility bill cards from yellow to white. We have a couple months of yellow cards on hand and then we will be transitioning to white cards. He also discussed the first Belle Plaine Budget Workshop which was set for January 9^th. The City Clerk is still waiting on Benton County to publish valuations. To give the Clerk and City Administrator sufficient time to prepare a budget presentation for the Council, we will delay the Workshop by one week. It will now be held on Monday, January 16^th in the Council Chambers at Belle Plaine City Hall at 6:00 p.m.

Correspondence: None

Old Business: None

Resident Comments: None

The council did not go into closed session.

Motion by Landuyt, seconded by Schlesselman to adjourn the meeting. On roll call vote, all voted aye. The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.

Dave Fish, Mayor

Attest: Sandra Walton, City Clerk

Transcribed by the City Clerk subject to Council approval